A new field hospital was established in Ha Noi on Thursday, aiming to train Vietnamese military medical officers to prepare for a UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.

Colonel General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Defence Minister (second row, seventh from right) poses for a photo with military medical officers chosen to join a new level-2 field hospital in Ha Noi on Thursday. — VNA/VNS Photo Duong Giang

The officers chosen to join Viet Nam’s second level-2 field hospital are outstanding military officers from the Military Medical Academy, the Viet Nam Peacekeeping Department, the second Military Region of the Viet Nam People’s Army, as well as the General Department of Logistics (under the Ministry of Public Security) and the Department of Military Medicine (under the Ministry of Defence).

The Military Medical Academy and the Viet Nam Peacekeeping Department will develop a training curriculum for the officers.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of pre-deployment training for the hospital in Ha Noi on Thursday, Colonel General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Defence Minister, said the curriculum should focus on medical examination and treatment in foreign environments, and on foreign language training for medical officers.

“The hospital should keep in close touch with the first level-2 field hospital to exchange information and experiences about their peacekeeping mission,” he said.

He asked agencies under the defence ministry to prepare medical equipment and start developing equipment transportation scenarios.

A level-2 field hospital must be capable of examining and treating a maximum of 40 outpatients per day, receiving 20 inpatients in a week and performing 3-4 operations per day with anaesthesia, according to UN.

Viet Nam’s first level-2 field hospital was established on November 25, 2014.

Sixty-three military doctors from the hospital were deployed to South Sudan in October to join a peacekeeping mission for a year.

VNF/VNS